Cheboygan County Sher­iff Dale Clarmont gave his annual report to the Cheboygan County Board of Commissioners Tuesday morning, describing how things have gone in his de­partment over the last year.

Clarmont said his de­partment represents the largest part of the Cheboy­gan County budget, which is not uncommon around the state, as it provides the first line of public safety,” which is expensive.

“The other thing that is unique about a sheriff ’s department in the state of Michigan is that we are mandated by the state con­stitution to have a jail,” Clarmont said.

Clarmont said there are five divisions of the sheriff department, administra­tive, road patrol, jail, ma­rine and snow patrol/ORV patrol. It is a big depart­ment and he said is im­perative the taxpayers are aware of where their mon­ey is being spent.

The sheriff said he has been able to run his de­partment with such effi­ciency because of the staff as well as the cooperative working relationship he has with the county board.It is not a commonplace thing, he said, for the sher­iff to get along with the board of commissioners the way they do in Cheboy­gan County. He attributes much of their success to this.

The sheriff ’s depart­ment, in 2013, was ap­proved to spend $3,206,482. Over the year, their actual expenditures were $3,098,913, which left them a balance of $107,569, which is about 3.4 percent of the expen­ditures budget.

“My degree, for those of you in the audience, is in business administration, not criminal justice,” Clar­mont said. “And so that percentage of the approved expenditures is in our ball­park. We try to keep it at about 5 percent or below and we have been very successful.”

Revenue is generated in several different ways, in­cluding out of county boarding fees, inmate tele­phone use, work releaseprograms and county boarding fees.

Clarmont said the out­of- county boarding fees were historically used when another county needed Cheboygan Coun­ty to house inmates for them, typically Oakland County. However, that has declined over the year, since the jail has become increasingly fuller.

The inmate telephone program allows inmates to make calls. However, the inmates have to pur­chase a phone card from the jail. This brought in around $31,995 in 2013.

Page 2 of 3 - The sheriff ’s department also received a number of grants, totaling around $171,621. Combined with all their other revenues generated, the department was able to bring in $420,535.

When the department’s expenditures are combined with their revenues gener­ated, the department’s to­tal cost for 2013, to the county, was $2,678,378, reported Clarmont.

In his report, Clarmont also thanked Commis­sioner Tony Matelski and his wife, Roberta, for their donation to the K-9 divi­sion of the sheriff ’s de­partment.

“Without their $5,000 annual donation, and lit­erally, the hundreds of some thousand dollars they have put into this, we would not have a K-9 unit,” Clarmont said. “It’s very expensive. It’s a specialty unit. It’s a tool in our kit bag, if you will.”

Clarmont said the de­partment has grown very used to having the dog there, and it would not have been possible if the Matelskis had not stepped up on two occasions to support the K-9 unit.

“When the vehicle start­ed getting a lot of miles on it, they stepped up again and said, ‘We’ll buy an­other vehicle.’ And every year, they still give the $5,000 to keep that pro­gram going,” Clarmont said. “Thank you, not only from me, but from the cit­izens of this county. Our K-9 program is second to none.”

Also in his report, Clar­mont outlined several pro­grams the department of­fers to help educate the public and teach safety, including teaching com­munity drug awareness to Cheboygan High School staff, collaborating with the Cheboygan County Council on Aging to keep seniors safe and offering a substation in Wolverine.

“We place a deputy down in the southern part of the county, Wolverine, so people don’t have to drive all the way up here if they want to talk to a deputy, if they just have a general question,” Clar­mont said. “It is on Thurs­days, from 11-to-1 p.m. and we do have a pretty good turnout.”

Clarmont said 2013 was a busy year for the depart­ment, with an increase of calls which deputies were dispatched out on of around 11 percent. The de­partment was able to han­dle the caseload because the board had approved the hiring of two more deputies when the State Police Post pulled out of Cheboygan after the re­structuring.

“It was still a cost to the taxpayer, the board ap­proved it, and I think this is a direct reflection of that,” Clarmont said. “It used to be the state police handled about 50 percent of our criminal complaints and calls. And now, they’re just not there. And I think that’s a direct reflection of this board and this de­partment working togeth­er to ensure the security of our community.”

Page 3 of 3 - Clarmont said he is still a firm believer in Ben­jamin Franklin’s saying, “Well done is better than well said.” He said he be­lieves he, the board, and the department has done the best they can for the community.

“And we will continue to do that,” he said.

Chair Linda Socha said she appreciates Clarmont’s time and the detail of the presentation. She feels it has been a priority of the county board to provide safety to the county tax­payers.

“Strong safety means a strong community,” Socha said. “And for us that’s an economic base. People want to come where they see a strong stance on drugs.”

Socha said it is impor­tant to take the strong stance on drugs, and Cheboygan County was the first to employ a drug offi­cer. They are also one of the only counties who con­tinue to fund school liaison officers.

“Those are choices the board has made, and hope­fully the board will con­tinue to make, because it is important,” she said.